


now you learn the hard way

by ithilien22



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-25
Updated: 2010-09-25
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithilien22/pseuds/ithilien22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Judy Fabray just wants her daughters to be normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	now you learn the hard way

**Author's Note:**

> Written for round one of the Livejournal contest diva_off, for the prompt, _Pull the hair back from your eyes, let the people see your pretty face. Try not to say anything weird_.

Quinn Fabray is a strange kid growing up. She wears baggy overalls and big glasses and her long blonde hair always hangs down over her face. Plus, on top of her dorky appearance, she also tells everyone who will listen that she's got – almost – the biggest insect collection in the state and that someday she's going to be an entomologist. ("Someone who studies insects," she sometimes has to clarify, in a tone surprisingly condescending for a seven year-old.)

It's not until she's around eleven years-old that her mother begins to accept that this isn't just a phase that her daughter will one day grow out of. Almost immediately, the overalls disappear from Quinn's closet, followed closely by her massive insect collection and all of her related tools and science books.

"Mom, how could you?" Quinn screams, taking in the sight of her near empty room with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"They were _bugs_ , Quinnie," her mom replies, unfeelingly. "They don't belong in the house."

When Quinn continues to cry, her mother sighs and moves toward her. She softly reaches out a hand and tucks a strand of her daughter's unruly hair behind her ear.

"You're going to start junior high in a couple of weeks," she reminds Quinn, voice gentler than before. "Don't you want to fit in, sweetie? Don't you want to be popular like your big sister?"

"I just want my stuff back," Quinn whimpers softly.

Her mom's mouth draws back into a hard line and her hand drops from where it's been resting against Quinn's cheek.

"Well, that's not going to happen," she returns coldly. "So I suggest that you go put on one of those nice dresses I bought you and get ready for the Fitz's dinner party tonight at the club."

With that, she turns to leave, but she pauses for a moment in the doorway as if she wants to say something else. Instead, the door closes behind her without another word and her stiletto footsteps echo loudly down the hallway.

Quinn stares at the closed door for a long time before finally putting on a dress as told and then sitting down in front of the gaudy, overpriced vanity her mother had enthusiastically placed in her room. She picks up her brush and purposefully pulls her hair back into a ponytail so tight that it almost hurts. She wipes away the last of her tears and simply stares at her altered reflection until her sister calls out that it's time to leave.

"Don't you want to fit in?" her mother's voice echoes to the New Quinn sitting in the mirror.

Five years later, as she watches the realization of her teen pregnancy dawn in her mother's eyes, Quinn can't help but wonder if she now wishes that she'd just let her keep the damn bugs.


End file.
